Hummingbird and Butterfly Gardening: Don't be so hasty to clear out dead cuttings from your cage!, 1 by UniQueTreasures

UniQueTreasures wrote:
I was cleaning out my cage yesterday. About a week ago, I'd seen a Monarch laying eggs on my milkweed. Immediately after she left, I cut the tops off the plants and stuck them into some little pots in my cage that were filled with soil. Yesterday those plants were looking just horrible. So I plucked them out and tossed them into the chiminea.

This morning, I took my first cup of coffee out to check on my cats. I have lots of GF cats in my cage in various stages. I always look in the mornings to see if anyone has had the urge to "do their thing". Much to my surprise, this morning I found an itty bitty monarch cat on one of the still horrible milkweed cuttings that I missed yesterday.

I almost dropped my coffee cup as I scrambled to the chiminea to see if there were any on those dead looking cuttings I'd tossed in there yesterday. Each one had several tiny cats on them. I pulled them back out of the chiminea and stuck those pitiful cuttings back into the soil of the little pots and went to cut fresh cuttings for my newest babies!

I grilled some steaks last night on the grill. Ordinarily, I would take any coals that were left after cooking and put them into the chiminea to burn out any collected refuse. I didn't do that last night... Thank Heavens!

These guys are only about 1/8" long. Can't believe I spotted them!

Janet